Thursday, March 27, 2008

Remember back in the eighties when magazines like OP would praise to the rafters this new trend in musical evolution called the "cassette culture"? I sure do, and in fact how could I ever forget scouring that periodical's special cassette-only column just to see what home-cooked doo-dahs would fit in snugly with my own sense of addled rockism! Finds such as the Information/Mofungo/Blinding Headache tape and an early Hawkwind-ish roar from F/i as well as this strange electronic offering from David Solomonoff of Cleveland's Harlan and the Whips/Criminal Mystics fame were just as important to my bubbling under ever-growing sense of musical greed as the latest hotcha underground singles I'd also discover in OP's fruitful pages. Of course the vast majority of these cassettes were probably just some Joe Blow joking around with his tape recorder trying to create an "artistic statement" that perhaps added a few more "posts" to the post-post-Cage idiom, but I guess the real point of all this tapefoolery was that now with an easier and cheaper access for getting one's music out and about it wasn't like one had to spend major portions of one's trust fund to show one's pretensions for a much wider (for what it was) audience to hear!

The cassette culture of the eighties lives on, although by now we have entered into the digitized generation where not only can people make their music known and at even cheaper rates and perhaps better clarity via CD-R's, but now they can present themselves to an eagerly awaiting audience via mp3's and their very own myspace page. This release from what I guess is a "studio"-only affair called the Paisley Plaid is but one of many of these spiritual children of the eighties cassette culture days, featuring interesting instrumental grooves courtesy Rob Keay, whose brother David was involved with the Day Care Center twofa reviewed last year while a Dan Folkus provides vocals and other overdubbed speak usually uttered through loads of distortion, filters and perhaps speed modulation making his voice about as irritating as talking to me with a sinus condition over the phone during a tornado warning.

Definitely bedroom studio quality here, and like I said Keay's music makes for nice psychedelic (even Hawkwind-y) backdrop for evening reading sessions. These sounds would do just fine if they only weren't marred by the irritating manipulated vocalese which reminds me of some of the lesser eighties experiments that the aforementioned cassette culture could dump on us at times. If this is your cup of herbal then by all means go to the Paisley Plaid's myspace page (by the way, with a name like the Paisley Plaid you'd think these two'd be part and parcel to that other eighties under-the-counterculture trend, mainly the sixties garage band revival!), but frankly I was hoping for something that veered closer to brother David's kraut-y free rock structures that continue to keep me from further annihilating myself. But whatever, I guess eighties nostalgia (eck!) does continue to roll on...

I thought just about EVERYBODY who followed the Cleveland under-the-underground knew about Harlan and the Whips/Willie and the Criminal Secrets/Mystics! Sure I'd like to hear just about EVERYTHING you did, past present and even future! The David Solomonoff story does need to be told!

The CD I promised many months ago was finally mailed this morning after a long series of delays and distractions including problems getting the cover art completed and having to return to Ohio because of the sudden death of my younger sister Nicole (who was a classical violist as it happens).